Good news has poured in for Mumbai's Dharavi after nearly 20 days. After not reporting a single COVID-19 case on Sunday, since June 15, Asia's largest slum has not reported a single COVID-19 case again on July 4. On June 15, the slum colony had last reported zero cases.
According to BMC data, the areas's active cases stands at 22 as of July 4.
Notably, Dharavi recorded just a single new case of coronavirus on Friday (July 2), a senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said.
Dharavi's Covid-19 caseload has increased to 6,899, of which 6,519 patients have already recovered and discharged from hospitals, the official said.
Dharavi which has a population of about 10 lakh densely packed into an area of 2.1 square kilometers had reported its first COVID-19 case on April 1 last year. On April 8 this year, it recorded its highest-ever single-day spike of 99 cases during the second wave of the virus outbreak.
Vijay Wadetttiwar, state minister for Disaster Management and Rehabilitation had told ANI: "Dharavi is Asia's largest slum and logged zero cases of COVID-19 in a single day. It is a clear indicator that Mumbai is recovering well. Credits for this go to Mumbai authorities for better COVID management and Dharavi residents. It is a clear indicator that Mumbai is strongly fighting against COVID-19."
Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had said, "It is a success not only for the BMC, but for all the residents of Dharavi. All of them should be thanked." In the first wave of the Covid pandemic, the number of daily cases dipped below 30 after September 2020, with no new cases reported in a period of 24 hours on six occasions. Zero cases were reported once in December 2020 and on four days in January and once in February this year."
